Women Suffer Blow on Praying at Wall

Faced with an Israeli Supreme Court decision banning a
women's group from reading the Torah at the Western Wall, feminists and
advocates of religious pluralism are weighing their options.

"I'm angrier than I am demoralized," said Phyllis Chesler,
co-founder of Women of the Wall.

In a 5-4 ruling April 6, Israel's Supreme Court reversed an
earlier decision that had recognized Women of the Wall's right to pray at the
holy site in the manner its participants chose. The court also gave the Israeli
government 12 months to prepare an alternate site for Women of the Wall's
monthly prayer service, in which participants read from the Torah and wear
prayer shawls.

But the court ruled that if preparations at Robinson's Arch,
an archaeological site at the southern end of the Western Wall, are not
completed within a year, the group must be allowed to pray at the Western Wall.

The group, which draws women from all streams of Judaism,
symbolized "pluralism in action," said feminist Letty Cottin Pogrebin, who said
the verdict was a triumph for the alleged hegemony of Israel's ultra-Orthodox
establishment. (In Orthodox tradition, only men have read from the Torah. Some
ultra-Orthodox Jews, outraged by the sight of women reading from the holy
scroll, have physically intimidated Women of the Wall prayer sessions.)

Women of the Wall now is considering its options. Chesler
rattled off several:Â wait to see what happens in a year; introduce Knesset
legislation to override the verdict; continue holding services with the Torah
near, but not at, the wall, and holding prayer services at the wall without
talitot and Torah;Â flout the decision and pray with the Torah at the wall, an
act of civil disobedience;Â organize a worldwide campaign of solidarity
services seeking "religious freedom for women."

Group members say women's Torah reading is becoming
increasingly accepted in Orthodox circles, but the Israeli government has
argued that the group's service at the wall could threaten public order. In the
current case, the court was ruling on an appeal filed by the state to a May
2000 decision recognizing the group's right to hold prayer services at the
wall, and instructing the government to make arrangements for it.

Frances Raday, a lawyer for the group, said the court had
not backtracked on its recognition of the women's right to pray at the wall,
but the court chose to protect the sensitivities of other worshipers over the
the women's right to pray at the wall, she said.

National Religious Party legislator Shaul Yahalom welcomed
the court ruling. "The Supreme Court saw the need to preserve the rights of
most of the worshipers in the world to not be hurt," he said on Israel Radio.

Women of the Wall has consistently rejected proposals of
alternate prayer sites.

Though Chesler is upset with the court's decision, she said
she is skeptical that the contingency plan will stick, since Robinson's Arch is
unlikely to be ready for use within a year. She cited the cost and work required
to level and prepare the archaeological site for public prayer. In addition,
she said, Israel's archaeological authorities might oppose the arrangement.

Attorney Raday has said some lawyers and politicians believe
the court ruling may be a delaying tactic.

Even so, supporters of the group aren't taking it lightly.

The case is a "bellwether," Pogrebin said. "It tells us a
lot about ourselves if we can live with this injustice as a people."

Chesler linked the act to the upcoming Passover holiday,
which begins on the night of April 16.

"This year I may celebrate Passover, but surely I am not
leaving Egypt," Chesler said. "The Pharaoh who we face, who keeps us in Egypt,
is the ultra-Orthodox view that women cannot pray with the Torah with a group
out loud at the Kotel -- and their chief defender now is Aharon Barak," Israel's
Supreme Court chief justice.

JTA correspondent Naomi Segal in Jerusalem contributed to
this report.

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